When I think about death with dignity, I realize that I have never really thought about it much before. As you go through school and think about becoming a nurse you know of certain topics that seem like would never actually happen during your career. This is one of those topics, where I knew about it but never thought too much into it because it is a situation that seems as if it would never happen. With that being said, I have a general knowledge on what it is and did not realize that it happens. I just learned in class this year that if a patient is nearing the end of life and the nurses are treating their symptoms and a patient is in pain, but the pain med may kill them, you are supposed to give it anyways. That is a crazy concept to me, and I do not know how I would feel doing that or being the reason that someone’s life ends sooner than it was supposed to. I understand the topic and if it does happen, I just hope the patient has full knowledge on what could happen, so they can make those choices. I do not disagree with death with dignity, but it is something that I do not know if I would be able to do. I feel as though it would be hard for me to knowingly give someone a medication that could end up killing them, whether they are approaching the end of their life or not. We are taught to keep our patients safe and keep them alive, and this is the opposite of that. This topic does challenge everything we have learned about ethics in school, but I do understand to an extent of why it is a thing.

            Something that could be an issue with this and that I see as a big ethical dilemma is if the patient is getting end of life care, but they are unable to make any decisions. If a patient was in and out of consciousness or unable to communicate, that would be hard for me. I would want to be able to communicate anything that I am doing or giving to them. If they are unable to understand it would not feel right and really challenge my beliefs on the first ethical principal. Personally, being a nurse in a situation like this would make me uncomfortable because I would feel like I am doing something wrong the whole time.